Shloka 181
Śuka’s Guṇa-Transcendence and Vyāsa’s Consolation (शुकगति-वर्णनम्)
न तु कुण्डे पयोभाव: पयश्चापि न मक्षिका । स्वयमेवाप्रुवन्त्येते भावा ननु पराश्रयम्
na tu kuṇḍe payobhāvaḥ payaścāpi na makṣikā | svayamevāpruvantyete bhāvā nanu parāśrayam ||
Bhīṣma said: “Yet the pot does not become ‘milk’ by merely holding it, nor does milk become a fly. These dependent properties and states, of their own accord, resort to a different support (substrate) than themselves.”
भीष्य उवाच
Educational Q&A
Bhīṣma uses a simple analogy to show that qualities and states are dependent on an appropriate substratum: a container does not become the contained, and one entity does not transform into an unrelated entity merely by proximity. ‘Bhāvas’ (properties/conditions) inhere by dependence (parāśraya) in something other than themselves.
In Śānti Parva’s instruction, Bhīṣma is explaining a philosophical point to clarify how attributes relate to their supports—using the pot, milk, and fly as examples to correct mistaken assumptions about identity, transformation, and dependence.